G2A has developed a reputation somewhat of being a grey market key seller with lots of accusations that keys sold on the platform by sellers are often obtained through illegitimate means. These means are said to include people posing as press/influencers to get keys to then sell them on, to accusations that keys are bought in bulk using stolen debit and credit card details from one seller then put up on G2A. It’s an issue quite a lot of developers have been vocal about as keys sold through G2A are often cheaper than elsewhere meaning the value of the game appears cheapened and also results in loss of revenue for developers with smaller developers obviously feeling this a lot more.
Now Mike Rose of publisher No More Robots, which has published games such as Hypnospace Outlaw, Nowhere Prophet, and Descenders, has started a petition that is demanding G2A remove indie games from its platform. This follows a heated discussion between Mike Rose and G2A over a post where G2A has stated it will pay developers 10x the money they would have lost through chargebacks on illegally obtained keys, as long as developers could prove they were victims. What hasn’t sat well is some of the responses G2A has given to developers on Twitter following the article, with certain odd stances being taken that if G2A didn’t sell unverified keys then someone else would.
Let's say that petition goes and G2A decides to stop selling any indie game. "Nature abhors a vacuum". Sellers would move to the next platforms (there is like 20 of them) and then to Ebay and other marketplaces.
— G2A.COM (@G2A_com) July 5, 2019
Here are 2 solutions to the problem:
1. Every single reseller in the world + Ebay and most of the other marketplaces would have to somehow distinguish those keys. (impossible)
2. Devs could use platforms like https://t.co/o6Jtg18zSt to regulate them easily. (actually doable)— G2A.COM (@G2A_com) July 5, 2019
Sounds good, yeah.
Do you think that if G2A would close down tomorrow, the problem would be non existent within a month?
— G2A.COM (@G2A_com) July 5, 2019
Our game has never been offered on giveaway or wholesale, but you still did not take it down, despite our multiple demands.
— Gwennaël Arbona (@StrangerGwenn) July 5, 2019
As you can see there’s a lot of back and forth between G2A and developers over what counts as a legitimate key. In one Tweet G2A states that even if games that are being sold were acquired despite breaking terms of service of other markets it doesn’t matter because TOS doesn’t equal the law.
* People buying codes in bulk from bundles against the TOS.
We act according to the law. TOS ≠Law. You can put in your TOS literally whatever you want, even things that are against the law.
— G2A.COM (@G2A_com) July 5, 2019
It’s unlikely G2A will close down due to this issue as it has been functioning fine despite other issues in its past, but developers really do not appear to like dealing with the company. Since the petition was started earlier, which is called “G2A: Stop selling indie titles on your platform” a couple of hours ago it has garnered approximately 600 signatures at the time of writing and has been shared by the likes of Mike Bithell. Whether G2A will actually do anything despite the pressure remains to be seen, but it’s unlikely.
Source: Twitter
Update:
Questions have been raised in how Steam keys are finding their way to G2A, and Mike Rose has explained in a Twitter thread in relation to one of the games published by his company, Descenders.
OK, I keep seeing G2A using the "well where did the Steam keys come from then?" argument
So let me blast that one wide open for you
Here's the G2A page for Descenders. 3 sellers — 2 apparently sell keys, while one sells "Steam Gifts"
So where did these Steam keys come from? pic.twitter.com/i2X9LsPE6G
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019
So I go into the feedback for these other two sellers, and guess what?
They're lying. They don't give people Steam keys. They give buyers a dodgy link, which they click to then receive the game via "Steam Gift"
There are no Steam keys, it's all Steam Gift pic.twitter.com/u7JExLDvAd
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019
So what's happening then? Here's the chat:
– Someone sells a copy of a game using dodgy links and "Steam Gifts", waits until the game is in their account and they're happy
– At that point, they have plenty of options regarding how to kill that key and not pay for it— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019
In other words: *There is nothing we can do about it.*
There is not a single Steam key on G2A for Descenders, they are all dodgy "Steam Gift" links. We did not authorize a single one of those sales, nor are they legit second-hand code sales
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019
Now, there's a simple solution here: G2A could shut down any seller who is pretending to sell Steam keys, but is actually selling dodgy Gift links.
Of course, they're never going to do that. But please don't believe what they say about it being an issue that devs create
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019
And of course, these sellers are not doing this manually. There isn't a team of people sat there sending out 10,000s of Steam Gifts to people. It's all automated, driven through bots and dodgy links.
There are sellers on G2A making $100,000s from doing this, and G2A does nothing
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) July 5, 2019
That’s one way. The other issue is that scammers can use stolen cards to buy keys through things like bundles and then resell them on G2A. However, if someone buys that key and it turns out to be stolen that game be removed from the person’s library. This will also mean chargebacks will occur from people who had card details stolen, so those sales developers thought were legit aren’t and they lose the income. That’s because under law in a lot of places including England if you buy a stolen good unknowingly it can be taken away by the authorities. Of course, if it were also discovered that G2A knew it was selling goods that were got through illegal means then the company could be liable for handling stolen goods though that would be difficult to prove, and G2A has shown it is taking steps to curb the issue.
It’s all a bit of a mess really.
TheShepanator
To be honest, unless there’s some other information I missed, I agree with G2A.
Where do the game keys come from that are sold on G2A?
You can’t buy game keys in bulk from steam or any other store-front, the only place somebody could obtain game keys in bulk at a discount is direct from the game publisher.
If the developers are unhappy with keys for their game being sold at a discount then don’t allow your publisher to sell keys for your game in bulk, and certainly don’t sell them to shady middle-men with no identity.
G2A have put their money where their mouth is and offered a 10x return for any proven cases of chargebacks on the devs for keys which were sold on G2A, I think that says it all to be honest.
I understand that for indies being a victim of card fraud is terrible and can effect their razor thin bottom line, but why attack G2A over it? Just stop letting keys for your game be sold into the market in bulk and only sell directly to store fronts.